Distance
by beccaslemons
Summary: Will the distance between these basketball players be too much for them to handle? Will they ever meet? Read to find out. MidoTaka online friendship AU. There will be several characters besides Midorima and Takao in this fic. Some will be paired.


It was totally by chance that Takao happened upon the unique group of strangers. He had been messing around on the internet and wondered. "Hey, basketball is a popular sport, right?" Therefore, he figured that somewhere on the World Wide Web there'd be people talking about it. Since the sport was his favorite activity that he just couldn't get enough of, he searched, simply by googling the phrase, "Basketball groups." A few links down, he found what appeared to be a group of bloggers who blogged, talked about, played, and even breathed basketball.

Excited and ready to jump into their social circle, he eagerly clicked the link and it directed him straight to the main page. The point guard read the rules and looked over the application for the assumed utopia.

_Rules:_

_ 't spam._

_ basketball._

_ 't be an asshole._

_ disagreements will be settled on the court._

_Application:_

_ long have you been playing basketball?_

_ is your favorite player?_

_ brand of shoes do you wear?_

_ position do you play?_

_ you have any special abilities? If yes, what are they?_

_ 's your record?_

Takao thought for a moment. He'd been playing basketball for as long as he could remember, but he didn't join an actual team until he was in fourth grade. However, when he got to sixth grade, he didn't make the team and it crushed him. He almost gave up on the sport entirely, but a childhood friend convinced him to continue playing.

The black-haired boy wasn't really a fan of watching basketball so, for the second and third question, he just put, "Don't have one."

For the fourth question, he actually had to go digging around his room to find his sneakers. He looked at their insignia. "Under Armour," he typed.

He smiled at the next question, "Point guard, duh." Silly Takao, how are they supposed to already know that?

Okay, next question, "Yes, I have the eyes of a hawk. Literally." For once in his life, the hawk-eyed male wasn't joking.

Ah, the last question, "I have no idea, haha." He didn't know and he didn't care. Takao played basketball for the fun of it, not to win. Granted, winning was icing on the cake.

He quickly submitted the application. His heart was pounding and his hands were beginning to perspire. He was so excited. Takao wanted to stay up and wait for a reply from the group, however it was already well into the early morning hours and he had school in the morning. Four hours of sleep are better than none, right?

Even though Takao had been ecstatic the night before, he'd completely forgotten about the group by morning. Therefore, when he woke up, he didn't immediately check his email for a confirmation. Although, he didn't really have time for it anyway considering he woke up only 15 minutes before school started.

Not too much later in the day though—his fourth period class, he saw the email. "Yes!" The point guard caught the attention of his friend with the whispered shout.

Takao's friend, Tsugawa, looked over at him and asked, "What?"

The hawk-eyed teen looked from the email on his phone to his pal. "Ahh, it's nothin'."

Tsugawa, being the nosy boy he was, continued pushing for an answer that would satisfy him, "No, tell me."

Takao sighed, "Fiiiine. I just got into this group I applied for."

Tsugawa's face immediately showed his newfound disinterest, "Oh."

He actually felt relieved that he was done being questioned by the other male.

Takao's excitement caused him to ignore his current math class and instead read through the email completely.

_We are happy to inform you that your application has been read and you have been accepted into our group! We all look forward to interacting with you. Please create a blog and submit the URL to the main blog as soon as possible. _

Takao was so happy; his excitement from the night before was refueled causing him to run home after the final bell rang. He was only a first year, so he couldn't drive yet, but he also lived just a few blocks away from his school.

Once inside, he continued running to his room. The basketball lover basically threw open his laptop and clicked on the google chrome icon far too many times which only succeeded in slowing the process. After closing all of the extra tabs, he pulled up the blogging platform and signed himself up. Thinking of a URL was the hardest part. He was such an indecisive individual. Eventually, he had decided on, "hawk-eyed-point-guard." It was simple enough, but still gave a little insight into Takao as a basketball player.

Takao sent a message to the main blog. He figured they'd know who he was from his URL. Of course, they did. He followed the main blog and waited for his ask to be answered.

Five minutes later, it popped up on his screen:

_**hawk-eyed-point-guard**__** asked:**__ Hey,yo, this is my blog!_

_**basketballers**__** answered:**__ Thank you, Takao! Your URL has been added to the __masterlist__! Don't forget to follow everyone! – Admin Miyaji_

"Crap, I almost forgot," he mumbled under his breath. Thank god for Miyaji.

He scrolled through the masterlist, following everyone and even getting distracted by a few blogs. Takao couldn't wait to talk to everyone. The black-haired male felt that he was too new to send asks to everyone so he just made a post that read:

_Yo, yo, yo! I'm ready to party! Hahahahah! I can't wait to talk to all of you guys! Hit me up if you wanna chit chat!_

And there it was; now just to wait for someone to respond. Since a watched pot never boils, he exited out of the website and closed his laptop. To get his mind off of the group, Takao walked to the nearby park and started shooting hoops. Basketball always got his mind off of everything—school, life, just everything. Maybe that was the reason he loved it so much.

Takao spent the rest of the daylight hours on the court. He had started out by just practicing his shooting skills, but eventually some kids from his school showed up, making it possible for a game to be played. Of course it was more fun to play a game rather than just practicing a single skill. Takao figured this was because it felt like real basketball, but really it was because he got to hang out with his friends and new people. Takao was definitely a people-person. He got along with everyone, as long as his joking didn't go too far.

The teen walked home from the nearby park's court, sweaty and spent. He wanted to check his computer as soon as he walked in the door, but instead, his mom spotted him, "Kazu, where have you been?"

Takao let out a long breath, "I was playing ball with some friends, Ma." They weren't necessarily his friends, more like acquaintances, but before playing basketball, they had merely been strangers. Basketball brought people together.

"That's fine, just tell me next time." He didn't like his mom nagging him, especially with his little sister leering at him over it. However, he knew his mother just wanted the best for him-to know he was okay at all moments.

The point guard headed towards his room before hearing his mom call out, "Take a shower before dinner, Kazu!"

He sighed, "Okaaaay!"

After a short shower, dinner, and a quick cleanup of the kitchen and table, he finally got to his computer. Takao immediately signed onto his blog. He looked at his greeting post and even double-checked his inbox; no hits, none, zero, zip, nada. The male found it incredibly disheartening that nobody had contacted him yet. But alas! He did not give up hope yet. Instead, he figured that if he waited a bit longer, someone would come around.

He was absolutely right. When he logged on the next day after school, he had a message waiting for him.

_**pink-hair-and-cherry-knots**__** asked:**__ Hi, I'm Momoi! I saw that you're new and I wanted to invite you to our Skype group chat. We talk a lot more even though it's mostly not about basketball….but I guess that's what it's for since we try to keep our blogs strictly basketball. _

Takao _did_ have a Skype, although he never used it, but now was the perfect time to put it to good use. It was a good thing he used the same email and password for everything because he'd made the account a few years ago and didn't have the world's best memory.

_**hawk-eyed-point-guard**__** answered:**__ Hiya! I'm Takao! Nice to meet ya! Thanks, haha, my username is if ya wanna add me._

After he sent his reply, he signed onto Skype and looked for a contact request, even though he knew he was getting ahead of himself. However, an hour or so later, he got a notification.


End file.
